


you're just cute

by fondghost



Category: Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (2020), DC Extended Universe
Genre: Dinah being gay, F/F, Fluff, Harley and Helena are best friends and you can't convince me otherwise, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:14:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23275336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fondghost/pseuds/fondghost
Summary: “Fuck you.”“What? What’d I do? I'm just sittin’ here!”Dinah was damned if she was gonna pout. “This is really unfair.”“What is.”“How is it that you always look great, even in sweatpants?”---or, dinah really likes harley but is dumb
Relationships: Dinah Lance/Harleen Quinzel, Harleen Quinzel & Helena Bertinelli & Dinah Lance & Renee Montoya, Helena Bertinelli & Harleen Quinzel
Comments: 18
Kudos: 208





	you're just cute

**Author's Note:**

> Since BoP fans won't give me my Harley/Everyone RIGHTS, I've resorted to writing... I'm so sorry, I'm just not a good fiction writer asdfghjjhfgd but really why aren't there more Harley/The Birds fic? 
> 
> Look, no joke, this makes 0 sense imo, it started as this idea: "Canary finds herself in the uncomfortable position of continuously complimenting Harley—without realizing it and without the ability to stop. " -- clearly, that's not what this is rip. Eh honestly idk I feel like I might as well post this since it's kinda done anyway? As in I just wanted to write stuff and I'm ready to finish my other BoP fic! (if someone reads this and likes the prompt, PLEASE write it & lmk!!!!)
> 
> That said, enjoy?

\--------------------

# 1

\--------------------

Deciding to be a vigilante, while very rewarding, was a huge fucking mistake. Dinah, and the other two women, came back from missions almost always bruised, bleeding, and in pain. The exhaustion always absolutely sucked, too. Honestly, she’d never say this aloud, but Harley and Cass’ business? Seems way more fun—not that she’d ever admit that, especially not to Harley, not when Dinah spends half her time criticising and teasing her. 

Parking in front of their place—thank you, Helena—, they all let out a collective sigh of relief. 

“My bed.” Renee moans. “My shower, then my bed.”

God, Dinah’s wrist feels weird, but she’ll be damned if she checks it tonight—all she wants is to shower, change, and pass out for a good two days. 

They walk into the house, Dinah lagging behind still twisting her wrist hoping it’ll fix itself, when she bumps into Renee’s back. “What—?” 

In the living room, Cass is curled up on the biggest couch, snoring. Their coffee table is pushed to the side, and in its place is Harley, doing…yoga? Dinah’s breath leaves her, and with it her brain shuts down, so she can’t be entirely sure, but whatever Harley’s doing, yoga or not, is just very… _bendy_ —her brain supplies. Not a very clear description, but Dinah can’t really think at that moment so it’s the best she can do.

Dinah finds Helena and Harley’s relationship to be very fascinating; they’re both socially inept, in their own ways, one is awkward, unsure and judgy while the other is very outgoing and borderline pushy, so you would think they wouldn’t get along—and yet. They get along so well that Dinah is still surprised sometimes. Her working theory is that Helena is the only one immune to Harley’s...Harleyness. Renee is perpetually annoyed by Harley, and Harley is endlessly entertained by annoying her, so it’s a never ending cycle. And Dinah...Well, Dinah’s just really interested in Harley. Or something.

Finally noticing them, Harley switches positions, and smiles happily at them. “You’re back!”

Dinah’s brain, slowly starting back up again, shuts right back down at the new pose. 

Helena takes one look at Harley, rolls her eyes, and walks away, throwing a, “If I find one thing missing from my room, I _will_ kill you.” behind her. Harley just laughs, because apparently she doesn’t fear death.

Taking another approach, Renee just stares at Harley, apparently too tired to glare as she usually would’ve. “You know you don’t live here, right? 

Harley, a dangerously amused glint in her eyes, nods. “Yup!”

“I can’t wait for the day you two actually leave us alone for more than a few hours.” 

Renee should really learn not to engage with Harley when she’s too tired to hold back the violent impulses…

“Never gonna happen, doll, we’d miss you too much!” Harley throws a kiss Renee's way, making her scoff and follow Helena upstairs. 

Harley’s still laughing as she switches positions _again_ —and Dinah really didn’t need to know Harley was so...limber. But here they were. Dinah, uncomfortably, desperately trying not to acknowledge what her heart is obviously trying to tell her, because fuck that. And Harley, in _Dinah’s_ (technically Helena’s) living room floor, bending to impossible, and...inappropriate positions. Don’t ask Dinah what makes those poses inappropriate, she really wouldn’t know how to start answering. What she should be doing instead of thinking of this, is realizing how long she’d been standing there staring. And dying inside.

Her laughter dying slowly, Harley finally notices Dinah. “Oh, you’re still here!”

 _Well, fuck._ Dinah visibly shakes herself and snaps back to reality, the last thing she needs is Harley identifying the look she _knows_ she has in her eyes. Too much power for Harley Quinn to have, especially over Dinah herself.

Harley narrows her eyes in thought, before they widen for a second, and a wicked smile is aimed at Dinah, “You alright there, Canary?” 

“Yeah, I'm...fine.” Well, clearly Lady Luck doesn’t like her as much as she likes Harley.

“You’re kinda just standin’ there, and while I _love_ you lookin’ at me, I gotta be honest, the blood on your...” Harley waves her hand around, “ _everything_ tells me you definitely want to shower.” 

Helena once said that she had a theory that Death loved Harley. She said it was: “impossible how she got out of the craziest situations. There’s no other explanation. Unless she’s really fucking lucky or something, but she’s definitely not _that_ lucky, so if there is a Death, whoever it is clearly loves Harley.” With that in mind, Dinah would really appreciate Death taking her at this moment, because instead of saying something _good_ , she decides to be stupid.

“Yeah I….you’re….really flexible.” 

As soon as the words leave her mouth, she wants to disappear. What stupidity must’ve overcome her for her to, not only be so fucking obvious, but also hand Harley something to hold over her head forever on a silver fucking platter. 

Instead of something sexual (or _mean_ , not that Dinah thinks Harley would be intentionally mean to any of them), Harley instead just laughs, and Dinah thinks maybe the other girl will go easy on her poor, bruised and hurt self...but Harley will never not tease when she has the chance; “Wanna see all the ways I'm _flexible_?” 

With that, Dinah takes a deep breath, forces herself to roll her eyes, and just leaves the room. 

She can still hear Harley's laughter, and Cass’ sleepy and confused “what’s going on?” as she closes her bedroom door behind her. 

She really needs to get this under control. Whatever _this_ is.

\--------------------

# 2

\--------------------

“ _Please,_ D, I _really_ wanna go and _no one_ wants to go with me!” 

“I have things to do, Harley, I can’t just drop them because you want to go to a carnival.” and she really does have _a lot_ to do.

Harley grabs her hands, “D. Dinah. Canary. You’re gonna love it, I _promise!_ ” she bounces a little. _cute._

“I…” She needs to be stronger, where’s her self-control. “I can’t. Maybe some other day, what about tomorrow?”

Harley’s pouting, which is really unfair—how is Dinah meant to fight that. “It’s the last day, though.” 

_And_ she’s mumbling now. What the fuck. 

“You’re lucky you’re cute.” Shaking her head. 

Harley’s breathing stutters for a second, before Dinah’s words register, and a big, expectant smile takes over her face, “That’s a yes, right?” 

As if Dinah’s capable of saying no to her. She’s evidently gone for this girl, and she might want to fix that soon if she doesn’t want to be too far gone.

“Move before I change my mind.”

\--------------------

# 3

\--------------------

This is one of the reasons Dinah is constantly questioning how they’re a relatively successful group of vigilantes. They’re sitting around the kitchen table. Arguing. Because they have never been able to go on a mission without arguing about the plan, the logistics of it, which car to take, whether they should even take a car, whether they should shoot to kill or spare someone, whether weapons were needed or not, and if they were, _which_ weapons to take… It’s exhausting. She loves the women, and she loves what she does, but this part she could go without. 

Worst of all is Harley’s here. Now, Dinah loves having Harley around — all of them do, even Renee, but when the Birds are fighting, or arguing, Harley just goads, prods, and stirs the pot. Which is funny usually, but not when Dinah’s involved.

Currently, they’re arguing over the best way of going about this mission; they need the location of where a gang is keeping a shipment. They even know of a meeting taking place that night between the gang leader and the buyer. The problem is they can’t seem to agree on the best course of action. Helena thinks they should drop in on the meeting, take down everyone, and get the location from one of them — Renee thinks that won’t work, so she wants to find someone who works on the inside — Dinah thinks that’ll take too long, and they don’t have the time, and she thinks they need to somehow eavesdrop on the meeting. 

“ _How_ do we listen in? The meeting is in the open, we can’t just hide somewhere close by!” 

Renee is right. And that’s the standstill they’re at.

Helena sighs and leans back in her chair. “Just take them out. There won’t be a lot of security with them. We can take them.”

“We _can_ ,” Dinah agrees, “But we still won’t know where they’re keeping the stuff.” 

“We can make them tell us.” Helena shrugs. 

Renee snorts. “Yeah, right, ‘cause they’ll be willing to talk.”

“I can read lips?” 

Dinah’s response dies on the tip of her tongue, and all three of them turn to look at Harley — sitting innocently at the end of the table, face resting on her open palm, blinking slowly at them—bored. They’d somehow forgotten she was there. That realization throws Dinah for a loop — you never just _forget Harley Quinn is around._ She’s not sure why she’s so bothered by it.

Helena recovers first. “You can read lips?”

“Yup!” She nods lazily. “Sometimes Mistah J needed info without being spotted so I learned.” 

As if lipreading is that easy to learn… Dinah’s also bothered by the idea that _Harley_ was the one who went and learned it and not that motherfucker even though _he_ was the one who needed the information. She gets an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach at the thought of using Harley like he used her. But she pushes that thought away because unlike him, they’re not _using_ her, she’s helping them, because they’re friends.

“Is there anything you can’t do?” leaves Dinah’s mouth without her realizing.

Harley throws her a bright smile, and shrugs. “What can I say, guess I'm just special.”

She’s clearly joking, but the thought of being like _him_ is still bothering Dinah, and she _needs_ Harley to know they appreciate her. “You are. You’re one of a kind.” 

“Imma take that the good way.” 

Fuck, it bothers her that Harley thinks there’s a bad interpertation of that. “You should.”

Harley sits up and nods, jokingly saying, “There’s no one like me—just my looks alone are killer!” 

No way was Dinah, in her weirdly intense current state, letting Harley joke her way out of this one. “You are astoundingly beautiful, and that is the _least_ interesting thing about you.” 

Harley lets out a quiet “oh” but seems incapable of saying more.

Obviously annoyed with them, Renee interrupts, “Can we get back on track?”

Helena, sharing a look Dinah can’t read with Harley, nods and turns to Renee. “Harley can read lips, then. Fine, let’s go with Canary’s idea; we can stake out the meeting, and Harley can read their lips or whatever?” 

“You’re letting me join the mission?” Harley exclaims, back to herself.

“No.” Renee stresses. “You’re just coming this _one time_ , you stay out of the way the rest of the mission.”

Pouting, Harley slumps in her chair. “Boring.”

Shrugging, Renee stands up. “Everyone be ready to leave at nine.”

And that’s that.

——

“You are crazier than I thought if you think you’d survive in a zombie apocalypse.” 

“What is that supposed to mean? I could so survive in an apocalypse!” 

They had to arrive at the meeting point earlier than the assholes they were watching, so they could find a good spot to park undetected. Upside is they found a really good spot. Downside is Harley had made Helena watch Zombieland earlier that week, and the two would not stop talking about it. Helena then, because while she seemed awkward and reserved, and was to some extent, also hung out with Harley Quinn on a semi-daily basis and loved to stir the pot, had asked who they thought would survive in a zombie apocalypse and who would not. Harley seemed sure she’d survive, which threw Renee into a laughing fit, that then made the two start a fucking stupid arguement.

“Ha! Not a chance!” Renee shook her head.

Harley huffed and twisted so she was sitting backwards in her seat, facing Renee in the back. “I'm resourceful! I’ve _lived_ with the Joker! I’ve fought Batman and won on multiple occasions! I’ve escaped prison! I’ve saved the fucking world from a magical ghost being! You think I can’t handle a few zombies? Seriously?”

Waving her off, Renee rolled her eyes. “All that shit won’t matter in an apocalypse. The rules are different.”

“So what the fuck are the rules then?” Harley was getting frustrated.

It was actually entertaining watching Harley Quinn, who was always smug, amused, and relatively chill get so worked up. Especially when it was about something so ridiculous.

Helena sighed. “Honestly, I don’t think any of you would survive.”

Harley turned a wounded and betrayed look towards her. “What?!”

“Well…” Helena paused for a moment, studying Harley contemplatively. “Actually, yeah, you probably could.” Turning to Renee, she shook her head. “Not you though, you and Dinah would die. Sorry.”

Harley’s previous frustration left in place of smugness. “Screw you, Montoya!”

“You two are too close, I don’t trust you.” Renee scoffed. “You’d both be too reckless and dumb and die doing some stupid shit.”

Helena rolled her eyes. “No.”

Dinah, not having joined the conversation still, decided to give her input. “No no no, I see it—Harley would definitely survive a zombie apocalypse.” 

Snapping her head to look at her, Harley grinned and put her hand up for a high five, “Yes! Thank you!” 

Renee groaned loudly. “You’re all fucking stupid.”

“I'll have you know that I—” 

Helena cut her off. “Twelve o’clock. Showtime.”

——

Turns out no matter how prepared they were, shit almost always hit the fan. It was going well, Harley unsurprisingly did know how to read lips, and had been doing well, had even managed to get the location they needed. It was going well, until they’d been spotted, the boss and the buyer split and ran away, and the Birds + Harley had to get out of the car and fight the goons that were coming their way.

All in all, they were pissed off.

They went back to the house after Harley called Cass and told her she probably wouldn’t be back home, and to just go to bed. They needed to regroup and decide on the next course of action. 

Dinah, irritated, went to shower and change, needing to calm down before she sat down with the others.

When she came back down, she found everyone had followed her lead, including Harley. They were all clearly showered and changed. Even Harley, who was wearing...Helena’s clothes? 

“Fuck you.” 

They all turned to look at her standing at the doorway. Harley, realizing the words were directed at her, went wide-eyed. “What? What’d I do? I'm just sittin’ here!” 

Dinah was damned if she was gonna pout. “This is really unfair.” 

Confused, Harley frowned, “ _What is_.” 

“How is it that you always look great, even in sweatpants?” 

Helena, who was tense and ready to fight, fell back into the armchair, and rolled her eyes. Renee just groaned and picked up her coffee.

Harley, though, took a deep breath, and blushed. “....you gotta stop that.” 

“Stop what?” Through her sulking, Dinah was confused.

“Catching me off guard! I'm never speechless! Look at me, you _broke me_!”

For future reference, it was very hard to sulk through a blush. Dinah was really counting on Harley just kinda...forgetting every time she complimented her. It wasn’t as if Dinah had any control over it! It just happened! She saw Harley, or Harley did something, or said something, and Dinah just….complimented her. 

She wasn’t going to let Harley know that though. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but you need to look like a normal person at least _some_ of the time!”

Harley huffed angrily, then paused, squinted then frowned. “I'm confused. Am I supposed to be upset? Because I'm pretty sure you just said I was attractive, and like.” She laughed, “Have you _seen_ yourself? Girl, you’re _hot._ I know Catwoman and Poison Ivy, did you know that? Have you seen those two? They’re some next level gorgeous, but you?” she shook her head, “I'm sorry, you’re just...somethin’ else.”

Huh. Well. It seems as if Dinah’s lungs have decided to quit working, because she’s suddenly having difficulty breathing normally. What was she supposed to say to that?

“Are you two done flirting?” Helena deadpanned.

Harley, thankfully, was capable of words. “Fuck you, we weren’t!”

Putting her finished coffee cup down, Renee glared at them. “You can keep flirting some other time, like when we haven’t just had our asses handed to us, maybe?”

“Shut up. Let’s get on with it.” Dinah sat down, and grabbed the coffee Helena put in front of her.

\--------------------

# 4

\--------------------

Helena, Dinah, and Renee got to the restaurant they were meeting Harley and Cass at 30 minutes late. Renee had been whining about it the whole ride over, because: “those two shitheads are just gonna gloat about being early for once, nevermind that they’re always late.” which is actually true, Harley and Cass are almost always late for some reason, no matter what time they’re all meeting up. Dinah does love when the two are being smug assholes, though, so she’s not as worried as Renee. As for Helena, Harley never really gives her the same treatment she gives everyone else, so she’s never annoyed with Harley — only ever entertained. Not fair, in Dinah’s humble opinion, but what can she do. If she ever says anything, all they’ll do is ham it up and irritate her even more. So, she’s gonna suck it up and stay quiet.

When they get there, they find Cass immediately, sitting in the back, but it takes them a second to see Harley; she’s curled up on the seat across from Cass—sleeping. 

Helena and Renee sit down next to Cass. Dinah gently moves Harley’s head and sits down, resting her head back down on her lap, and letting her keep sleeping. 

“You’re late.” Cass is not amused but doesn’t seem to be too mad. 

Getting settled into her seat, Helena ignores her words. “Why’s Harley asleep?”

Huffing at being ignored, Cass rolls her eyes. “I don’t think she’s been sleeping much, I don’t know really, she says she’s fine but…” she shrugs.

Renee stands up and leans over the table, apparently getting ready to wake Harley up —loudly, when Dinah stops her; “Do you know what she wants to order?” 

Laughing, Cass nods, “Yeah, I know what she wants. She hasn’t stopped talking about this place since she found it.”

So, Dinah waves Renee off, “Let her sleep then.” 

She starts playing with Harley’s hair as they go on talking—apparently Harley had to get a new car because she tried teaching Cass how to drive, and the girl crashed their old car. When their food arrives, Dinah slowly starts waking Harley up, who opens her eyes and looks alert and tense for a second before relaxing and being confused—“What?” 

“We ordered for you, come on, get up and eat before it's cold, I really don’t wanna hear you complain for days about how we don’t respect your relationship with food or whatever.” But even though she says that, she’s still playing with Harley’s hair so Harley takes a second before she pushes herself up. 

Dinah notices Helena looking at Harley and frowning, so she glances at the girl next to her and sees her blinking slowly down at her food before tensing—seemingly noticing the attention on her, before snapping her head up with a wide smile on her face; “Did Cass tell you guys I'm teaching her to drive?” 

And while Dinah and Helena realize the attempt to get the attention off her tired state, Renee —having been talking to Cass— doesn’t, and starts to lecture Harley, which she seems to want. 

Dinah waits a beat before grabbing Harley’s arm and pulling her close to her side, “I swear you’re about to pass out.” She doesn’t give Harley the chance to close up and lie, before turning to Cass and asking her if she’s getting any better at driving. It takes a couple of minutes of Harley still stiff next to Dinah, fork held in her hand, before she relaxes and leans her head on Dinah’s shoulder, a few more beats pass before she starts taking very small, slow bites of her food — very unlike how she usually eats. Dinah tries not to alert everyone to how worried she really is, though she suspects Helena already knows.

When Harley seems to be done eating, and the others are in the middle of a conversation, Dinah finally asks, “Why are you so tired?” 

“Oh you know, life.” She waves her off. 

“Can’t sleep or won’t sleep?” 

That seems to confuse Harley for a second, “Is there really much of a difference?” 

“Yeah, so what’s keeping you up?” 

Harley’s quiet for long enough that Dinah decides to drop it, turning to the others’ conversation, which seems to be Cass trying to convince Renee that weapons training is very important for her to do. Before they noticed that Harley was quieter than usual — especially considering their topic of conversation, Dinah joined them; “Okay okay, clearly Montoya’s not gonna agree here, and honestly Cass aren't you a little too young to be handling a gun?” 

Cass rolls her eyes, “I live with Harley Quinn, you really think I'm too young for anything?” 

Dinah inwardly cursed that the attention was on Harley, and it kind of hurt how quickly Harley noticed and switched from her previous quiet state to wide eyed and mock outraged.

“What is that supposed to mean, you little shit?” 

“Nothing, just that your life isn’t the safest.” 

The gasp Harley let out had everyone laughing, even Renee who didn’t laugh at anything Harley did or said on principle at this point. This went on for a while before Renee got a call and had to get up to take it. 

Harley, when the attention turned away from her, deflated a little and leaned back on Dinah’s shoulder, closing her eyes. 

Absentmindedly, Dinah tugged on Harley’s hair. “Your hair looks nice.”

She couldn’t see Harley’s face, but she could almost feel it heating up against her shoulder. “Thank you.” it was said quietly, shyly.

Dinah wanted to sigh to herself at how soft she was becoming — how gone she was, but she still cautiously knocked Harley’s head up and then guided it back to her lap, she rolled her eyes at herself, before looking at the tired eyed girl and shrugging, “They’re still eating, rest until then.” 

“Oh. Okay.” 

“Can't have you driving exhausted.” 

Harley smiled and closed her eyes without another word. Dinah didn't really think the other girl was asleep, not exactly, clearly there was something keeping her up, but she let her rest her eyes for a while and didn’t let the others comment or disturb her. A nap would do her good.

“Can I get ice cream?” Cass asked after their food was taken away, looking —for some inexplicable reason— to Dinah. 

To the woman’s amused surprise, Helena also turned to her wide eyed with excitement. “Helena. You’re a grown woman. Get ice cream if you want it. And yes, Cass, we can.” 

Helena blushed but didn't say anything. 

When Renee got back, she shook her head at Cass ordering the biggest sundae they had, with all the toppings. “Who’s paying for that, huh?” 

Cass huffed, “Harley, obviously.” 

“Sure, as if you two won’t bail as soon as we get the bill.” 

Helena interrupted them by ordering her own ice cream — Dinah somehow was surprised at the Huntress’ preference for strawberry ice cream. 

“That’s it, thank you.” Renee said.

Dinah stopped the waitress before she left, “Excuse me, can I have a neapolitan with rainbow sprinkles and chocolate syrup?” 

“Would that be cup or cone?” 

“Cone.” After the waitress left, Dinah turned to three confused faces. “What.” 

Renee spoke first. “Since when do you eat rainbow sprinkles and chocolate syrup?” 

“It’s not for me.” 

Helena suddenly seemed to be biting back a smile, “Who’s it for?” 

Dinah rolled her eyes, “Harley’s gonna wake up and be upset that we didn't get her anything.” 

“Hm, right.” 

“Shut up.” 

Cass just sat back smiling proudly at her, while Renee decided to ignore what’s happening and click around on her phone. 

A few minutes later, they had their ice creams and the bill was paid—by Dinah, who ignored Cass and Renee arguing over Harley being asleep and not paying for Cass and herself. 

After that was done, Dinah, with the hand not holding the large ice cream cone, tapped Harley on the cheek, “Come on, Harley, wake up.” 

Harley woke up slowly, with a frown that quickly disappeared as she remembered who she was with. She got up, stretched and then took in the table-—Helena licking the side of her melting ice cream cone, Cass already half way through with her sundae, and Renee looking on in disgust. She pouted, “You guys got ice cream?” 

Dinah, biting back a laugh, tapped the table to get her attention, and handed her the cone in her hand. Harley took a second before understanding and grabbing the cone with both hands, looking at it like it was the best thing she’d ever seen. 

The laugh that was bubbling up in Dinah died when that look was quickly aimed towards her, “You got me ice cream, Canary?” 

Overwhelmed at the attention, Dinah nodded, “Didn’t wanna wake you. Figured you’d like all the flavors so…” 

Harley took a hand off her cone and pulled Dinah close for a hug, “You’re the best!” 

Dinah returned the hug for a second before worrying about the melting ice cream and pulling back, “Eat it before it melts.” 

Still beaming, Harley did as told.

\--------------------

# 5

\--------------------

Half-asleep, Dinah goes to get some coffee to start her day—or well, continue her day since she still hasn’t gone to bed. 

She finds Harley in their kitchen, and at this point they should all just stop questioning when the woman comes and goes, clearly she doesn’t plan on being predictable. She’s wearing a big t-shirt—an old one of Helena’s, Dinah thinks. _She looks adorable_ , Dinah’s tired brain whispers. And she really needs sleep if her brain is _whispering_ now.

Harley sees her, blinks twice, and hands her the mug she had in her hands, “You look like you need that more than me…” 

Dinah doesn’t question it or even thank her, she just takes a big gulp. “That’s really fucking cute.” she mumbles

“...the coffee?” Dinah must look really bad if Harley looks that worried, and maybe a little afraid. 

“No. The shirt. You look really cute.” 

“Oh.” Harley blushes —and if Dinah was a little less tired she’d tell her she loved when she blushes— and smiles happily, “Thank you! Not that it’s mine, it’s Huntress’...” she goes wide eyed and glances at the door, “but don’t tell her that! She almost killed me last week because I kept stealing stuff from her—well,” she seems to get lost in the memories, or her own words, or something, before she’s talking about something that happened last week.

But Dinah hadn’t slept in over 24 hours, she’s tired, Harley looks cute, and sue her, Dinah thinks Harley is fucking cute. Quietly, more to herself than anything, she says, “Polar bears and pandas should be afraid of how cute you are.” She’s not too sure where that came from, but really it’s a valid thought, Harley _is_ cute enough to make cute animals jealous. Dinah’s really fucking tired.

Harley kind of just stops. “What?” 

“Don’t worry about it….go on, so you stole Helena’s crossbow? Do you have a death wish?” 

Harley just blinks for a few seconds before deciding to move on.

\--------------------

# 6

\--------------------

She did what she always did when she needed to think aloud and clear her head. She found Helena. 

She plopped down on Helena’s bed, while the other woman stayed seated at her desk doing...something. 

Helena sighed. “What do you need?”

“Well. I don’t know.”

Spinning around in her chair, Helena gave her an unimpressed look. “Right. Who’s it about?” 

Dinah wanted to be difficult, but mostly she wanted her thoughts to make sense. “Harley.”

Urging her on, Helena asked, “And what about Harley?”

“ _I don’t know_. That’s why I’m here.” She fell back on the bed. “It’s weird. I’m usually better at identifying my emotions. I’m better at knowing myself. But I’m just lost at this point.”

She hears Helena’s chair spin back around. “Well, what are you feeling?”

She groans. “A lot?”

Helena’s pen stops scratching at the paper. Then starts moving again. “Be more specific or get out.”

_Fine, be that way._

“I can’t say no to her. I think about her all the time, and not just about what she’s doing, but _how_ she’s doing, if she needs something, or… And things just remind me of her, and I see things and I want to buy them for her because I think she’d like them. And I worry about her constantly. It’s bordering on fucking irritating how worried I get sometimes. But I also know she’s so capable of taking care of herself. And I want her to be happy. And--and--I don’t like it when she’s away for too long, or when she doesn’t pay attention to me, and I know something’s up now because did you see her at the restaurant? But I can’t ask her because you know what she’s like and she won’t tell me and I’m afraid if I show her I noticed there’s something wrong that she’ll push me away or pull away or just leave and….mostly she just makes me happy? I like having her around. She makes me feel lighter than I've ever felt. And she’s so chaotic and loud and insane in the best way, and--I don’t know, I can’t put it into words, it’s just—colors seem brighter when she’s around.”

Helena, at her desk, doesn’t even look up, just hums, and then -- bored and a little annoyed, says, “So what, you’re in love with her?”

That makes Dinah spring up from the bed. “What? No I'm not—“ shock and disbelief then fill her. Shock, because...huh, she is. And disbelief because she cannot believe she was stupid and oblivious enough not to notice. 

“I'm in love with her.”

“Great, can I go now?”

“Huh? Oh yeah whatever. Fuck.” 

What was she supposed to do now? She should tell Harley, right? She definitely should. How, though? Oh wow, and here she was thinking she was smooth and cool and knew how to handle herself. This really ruins her image. She just needs to make sure no one knew she had to be _told_ she was in love.

\--------------------

# 7

\--------------------

Helena was sullen, uncommunicative, and a little bitch. Well, not usually, but for the past three days. She wouldn’t talk to either of them. She snapped at Renee the day before for asking if she wanted _coffee_. 

(“I'm making coffee, want some, Canary?”

“Please, thank you!”

“Helena? Should I make you one, too?”

“If I fucking wanted coffee, I would’ve said something.”

She then got up and stormed out of the room.)

Renee and Dinah had talked about it — what could’ve possibly happened, and they’d come to the same conclusion: Harley. It was strange enough for three days to pass without either Harley or Cass coming over, or for Helena to go see them. Something must’ve happened. Being good friends, teammates, and roommates, Renee and Dinah agreed one of them needed to go check on Harley and see what happened. But Renee, while definitely a good friend, teammate, and roommate, was also a little shit, so she told Dinah, “Harley likes you better, you should probably be the one to go! Good luck!” and then ran away.

So that’s why Dinah was standing in front of Harley and Cass’ apartment, psyching herself up to knock. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to knock, or that she didn’t care to check on her friends, it was just that...if Helena was being difficult, she was really worried how Harley was going to be. Especially considering Harley’s been acting weirder than usual since the restaurant a week earlier.

She’d finally gotten the courage to knock when the door sprang open before her fist made contact. She stumbled backwards as Cass scrambled outside.

“Oh! Sorry! Hey.” Cass straightened and glanced at the closed door behind her. “You here to see her?”

“Yeah…?” 

Cass clapped her on the back, “Good fucking luck!” and walked off.

Well.

That was reassuring…

With a deep breath, she turned the door handle and walked inside cautiously.

The apartment was...tidier than normal. Like, a lot tidier. Harley, on her own, was chaotic, add a teenager to the mix, and their apartment looked like a tornado had recently passed through it on the best of days. But right now, it was—immaculate. That was. Very worrying. 

“Harley?” she called out.

It was quiet for a moment, before the girl in question walked out of her bedroom. A big smile on her face. “Hey! You’re just in time! The food’s almost here and I'm gonna watch a movie and Cass isn’t here, so you can join me!”

She seemed normal, but there was something in her eyes, a little wild, manic, and desperate. 

“That sounds good. I haven’t eaten, so.”

Harley darted around, picking things up, setting them somewhere else, getting plates and utensils, and cups, and she was quiet and the apartment was quiet. And Dinah knew something was definitely up.

She let Harley do her thing, though, thinking it’s better to let her be calm before she asked.

Half-way through their food, she couldn’t hold it in any longer, but she knew she had to be somewhat gentle. 

“So, what’ve you been up to? You haven’t been around.”

Harley tensed slightly, but kept her eyes on the tv. “Oh, you know, just doing things.”

“Hm… So, anything exciting happen?” 

“Not really.”

Hearing Harley give short, succinct, and vague answers was close to driving Dinah crazy.

“Keeping busy?”

Setting her fork down, Harley turned to look at her. “What.”

Feeling caught off guard, Dinah figured she might as well just be honest. “What happened?”

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

So Harley was being difficult. Go figures.

“Look. Helena’s moping around, and you haven’t been to the house in three days, so what happened? Did you two fight?”

That seemed to throw Harley off. “What? No, I haven’t even seen Huntress in four days — what?”

Guess they were right, the brooding was definitely Harley-related…

“Then she’s moping _because_ you haven’t been around. Have you talked to her?”

Harley was obviously still confused. “Why would me not going over make her _mope_?”

Huh. She really had no idea how important she was to them, did she? They were all doing something very wrong if she didn’t know how much they each missed her.

“Harley. Helena spends most of her time with you. She’s closest to you. She feels most comfortable with _you_ . We all—” go big or go home… “We all love you,” _coward,_ “and when you disappear for three days...we don’t like it. _That’s_ why she’s moping around.”

Looking amazed, Harley shakes her head. “It was just three—or four days.”

“So? We’re used to you being there almost everyday.” 

“Montoya always complains about me being there…”

Dinah rolls her eyes. “Renee complains about _me_ being around too much, and I fucking live there.”

“I—” Harley cut herself off and got up. “You done with your food?” she didn’t wait for an answer before taking both plates and heading to the kitchen.

Dinah stayed put and waited. Harley needed time and space, it was fine. She’d give her that.

A few minutes later, Harley was back. She sat back down and took a deep breath.

“It’s not a big deal.”

 _Clearly it is_ , Dinah wanted to say, _if it’s been bothering you for over a week_. Instead, “You can still tell me.” 

Blinking rapidly, Harley still wouldn’t turn to her. “I just saw someone I used to—know. And they reminded me of some stuff. And it’s not like I didn’t already know those things, but I was almost forgetting and then they reminded me and now I'm just — I can’t not think about them.”

That was altogether unhelpful. But Dinah at least had something to work with. “What stuff did they remind you of?”

Harley let out a shaky laugh. “Stuff I was stupid to think had changed is all.”

The last thing Dinah wanted was to see Harley cry, but she didn’t know what to do. Pull her in for a hug? Tell her whatever that person said wasn’t true? She had to stay calm, but it was really fucking difficult when all she wanted to do was find this person and hurt them like they’d clearly hurt Harley.

“Harley. What did they remind you of?”

Shoulders slumping, Harley shrugged, eyes wet. “Just that I wasn’t really wanted.”

What.

What the fuck.

What the fuck was that.

Dinah was overwhelmed. Angry. So fucking angry, but so overwhelmed. The room was spinning and she knew she was shaking, but she couldn’t quite calm down.

“Canary?”

Harley’s wary voice brought her back.

“That’s fucking bullshit.” she stammered out. “I don’t even know what the fuck that asshole was thinking, but that’s fucking bullshit.”

Carefully, Harley answered, “Not really?”

“Harley, what the fuck.”

“I'm useless. All I do is mess things up. I'm reckless and dumb, Montoya said that herself. I’d just screw things up. Why would anyone want… Mistah J always said everyone was replaceable, even me. And you know how much I sacrificed for him? My sanity was quite literally the _least_ I gave up for him, and he still couldn’t love me.”

Oh, how Dinah wanted to punch something so badly — preferably that green-haired motherfucker. “First of all, that fucker is crazy. Like actually crazy. You were his doctor, you know this. You loved him,” that was hard to say. “But you _know_ he’s incapable of love. Don’t base your worth on how much he cared about you. I doubt he even fucking cares for himself. And second of all, you being useless? That’s not true. And when Montoya said that, she was joking—that’s how she is. You… Harley. You’re more helpful than you think you are. You’re the person everyone wants on their team. Do you have any idea how scary you can be? And I don’t mean that to be rude! I mean, you are so fucking smart, and resourceful, and inventive, and the way you can use your body as a weapon is fucking incredible. The number of times I've thanked whatever higher power there is that you were on my side is astounding. Renee, Helena, Cass, and I love you. We love you. You’re reckless, and you enjoy annoying Renee, and you enable Helena’s murderous and violent tendencies way too much, and Cass is getting to be way too sarcastic and such a little shit because of you, but we _love you_ . I get that that shithead you were with probably made you feel like you weren’t enough, but he’s a dick. Who the fuck even calls themselves ‘ _the joker_ ’? Fucking stupid. If anyone should be feeling useless, it’s definitely him.”

She was wound up and heated, breathing heavily, and really wanted to keep ranting about the absolute fuckery that was the Joker’s existence, but she had to make sure Harley _knew_ she was telling the truth.

Her words died on her lips when she finally looked at Harley.

Harley’s eyes were still too wet for Dinah’s liking, but her expression was soft and moved and heartbreaking in its wonder.

“You’re such a softie…” 

“And you’re fucking incredible.”

\--------------------

# 8

\--------------------

She’d woken up craving cupcakes. So, because she was an adult whose job was flexible, she decided to make cupcakes. 

Except Harley couldn’t let a lazy day go by without making it interesting.

She walked into the kitchen. “The world sucks!” she announced in lieu of a greeting.

“Hello to you too.” 

Harley hops on the kitchen island. “Hi. The world sucks, and we deserve better!”

Dinah continues getting stuff out for the cupcakes, letting Harley complain—since that seems to be what she wants to do anyway. 

“Seriously, imagine how much better the world would be if it was just—not _this_ . Different and magical. No capitalism or misogyny or sexism or racism or stupid _shit_ ! If there was actual magic—wait,” she scrunches her nose up, “magic _is_ real but I mean I want the other, funner kind! I want _fun_ magic and fun adventures and no assholes! How awesome would that be? And if _unicorns_ were real. Unicorns would be so fucking cool. And, and, and _so nice_. And unicorns wouldn’t dare make you feel bad!” 

Dinah frowns in thought, measuring the sugar. “Who made you feel bad?” 

Huffing—in frustration, Harley plops down off the island and into the chair opposite Dinah. “Just—it doesn’t even matter right now, all that matters is the world sucks.” 

Dinah hums. “That it does.” 

“And! Not only is the world stupid, and people are stupid, the worst part is _I'm also stupid._ ” 

Dinah finally pays attention. 

Harley goes on, “Imagine how much cooler it would be if I was a unicorn—that would be. So. cool. Better than being human.” 

Still unsure what brought this on, Dinah treads carefully. “Unicorns are cool, yeah, but you know what. You’re better than a unicorn.” 

“That is not even a little—” Harley interjects, rolling her eyes. 

Dinah ignores her. “Because you’re _real_.” 

That gives her pause. “oh.” 

“I don’t know what this person said or did to you to make you feel like this, but I sure as hell don’t think the world would be better if you weren’t around.” stunned, overwhelmed silence. “Okay, now are you gonna help me make these cupcakes or what?” 

Harley looked a little dazed but powered through. “...only if I get to use a _lot_ of sprinkles later.” 

“You can use as many sprinkles as you want on yours.” Dinah shrugged. 

“Deal.”

Making cupcakes with Harley was, as expected, a mess. But, eventually, after taking way longer than it should’ve, they had their cooled cupcakes and were decorating. It went relatively well. 

“Sprinkles are _so_ good!” Harley moaned, all but drowning the cupcake in front of her in rainbow sprinkles. 

Dinah really was worried Harley was going to finish the sprinkles all on the three cupcakes she was tasked with decorating. As long as she was happy, Dinah figured. 

Working like a normal person, Dinah was going slow and steady frosting each cupcake, keeping in mind their three friends who weren’t there— _less frosting for Renee’s cupcakes_ , she reminded herself. 

“Tada!!” Harley presented two of her cupcakes. With a big expectant smile, and a glint in her eyes. 

As expected, her cupcakes were barely visible under all the sprinkles. “They look good.”

Narrowing her eyes, Harley pulled the cupcakes back to her side. “Really?”

“Yup.”

“Not too much sprinkles?” She asked suspiciously. 

Dinah raised an eyebrow without looking up at her. “Definitely too much, but they’re _your_ cupcakes, you can cover them with sprinkles if you like. And they do look good.”

Silence. All that was heard for a few moments was the butter knife Dinah was using to scrape the excess frosting off. 

“Why do you always do that?” 

Dinah frowned. “Do what?”

Sighing, Harley started peeling the wrapping off one of the cupcakes. “Compliment me? Say nice things?”

“Oh.” _What better time than now?_ “I guess we should talk about this.” 

“About what?” She sounds wary, scared. Dinah hates it.

Putting the knife in her hand down, Dinah gives Harley her full attention. She can’t think of why the other girl would be nervous. It’s not like Dinah had given her reason to believe she thought unfavorably of her. At least, she hoped she hadn’t. 

“Hey, calm down—it’s okay.”

Harley just glares at her, hands curling into fists on the table. “Right. Maybe just tell me?”

Yeah, prolonging it is probably a bad idea. Helena had made it seem so easy, so obvious and nonchalant that Dinah thought it should be. She was still nervous though. 

“So, here’s the thing… And please don’t feel like you need to say something.” _But please say something._

Harley was looking more and more worried. “Can you just tell me? The tension is kinda killin’ me here, Canary.”

Deep breath in. Just say it. Put it out there and Harley can do with it what she wants. “I’m in love with you.”

Huh. If Dinah thought she knew what Harley looked like overwhelmed, she was sadly mistaken. Because _this_? This was Harley overwhelmed. Wide-eyed, shallow breathing, fists loosening, slow blinks that quickly turn to fast ones, mouth falling open. Silence. 

Guess she’s going to have to do the talking. She would just go back to the cupcakes but Harley didn’t seem like she needed time to process her words, more like she was dumbfounded. “Yeah, surprise? I don’t know when it happened, or when it even started, but I am. In love with you. I don’t expect you to feel the same or anything, but you asked and I don’t know, it doesn’t feel fair being around you so much and you not knowing? I guess that doesn’t make much sense. Helena said it was obvious, which...I don’t really know what that says, to be honest.” she ends with a shrug. 

“But, why?” Harley, still frozen in shock, whispers, so low Dinah barely hears her. 

“What a fucking loaded question. A lot of reasons?” Dinah laughs, as if she could list them all. But considering how heartbroken Harley looks, she was going to fucking try. “I don’t believe people are 100% unique, I think we’re all a mixture of the same traits, but you? You’re one of a fucking kind. There’s ordinary, and then there’s you. You took everything I believed in, or thought I believed it, and tilted it on its axel. I never thought I could so firmly _see_ the grey area in right and wrong, but you showed me it. And I never would’ve thought I could accept it and fall in love with someone who arguably fits in that grey area, and yet here we are. I know I’m rambling but,” suddenly words are hard to come by, “you pretend you’re carefree and a lone wolf, but you’re really fucking caring, and you love _people—_ you _believe in_ people. Do you know how rare that is? Even the so-called ‘good guys’ don’t believe in people as much as you do!

“And you pretend you’re not, but you’re a fucking great listener. And you’re perceptive, too. And fuck anyone who thinks you’re dumb or crazy, because goddamn it you’re so smart? I don’t want to sit here and ramble on for too long, but you really are a gift.” she stops, breathing a little heavily. The silence stretches and she just...has to say this. Quietly, she murmurs, “The people you love are really lucky…”

At this point, she’s not looking at Harley anymore, she doesn’t even think she got her point across well at all. As the seconds tick by, the hope she didn’t know had been building inside her deflated. She blinked back against the rising disappointment, and started cleaning up the kitchen island. 

Harley stayed silent. 

“You can’t just say that and expect me to be just fine!” Harley suddenly exclaimed. 

Dinah, piling the dishes in the sinks, froze. “What?” 

Harley was fuming when Dinah turned around. “What do you mean _‘what?’_ ? You keep saying things as if they aren’t turning my world upside down and just expecting me to _deal with them_!” She stomps her foot. “That is totally unfair!”

Knowing that smiling would probably not be taken well, Dinah cleared her through. It’s just, Harley was _cute_. 

Harley squinted at her. “You wanna smile. What the fuck? What’s so funny?”

Succumbing to the smile that wanted to take over, Dinah shrugged. “I just really like you.”

Fight draining out of her, Harley bit her lip. “Thought you loved me?” 

Smile still in place, Dinah nodded. “Oh yeah, I definitely love you. But I also like you a lot.”

“There’s a difference?” Harley’s gaze was softening by the second. 

“I think so. You okay?”

Eyes suddenly wet, alarming Dinah, Harley asked, “Why wouldn’t I be?”

Wary now, Dinah took a step closer. “You don’t look okay? Should I have not said anything?”

“Do you--” Harley stopped herself. “Do you not want to have said it?”

Right. Dinah’s an idiot for completely disregarding Harley’s issues with being loved. Or well, _not_ being loved _back_. A complete moron. And she had the audacity to say she loved this woman. “I’ve been wanting to tell you since before I even knew I was in love with you.” 

Blinking rapidly against the visible tears, Harley huffed. “What does that even _mean?_ ”

Breathing a laugh, Dinah shrugs. “I don’t really know! I just know I’ve known you were different since the beginning.” she then turned serious, though, because she wasn’t heartless, “Harley….It’s alright if you need time to—“

She couldn’t finish her sentence because at that moment, resolve set in Harley and she marched the two feet between them, put her hands on Dinah’s cheeks, and pulled her in for a kiss. Even if Dinah wanted to finish whatever it was she was saying, she very much couldn’t remember her train of thought. All she knew was Harley was kissing her. _Harley was kissing her._ And she definitely needed to be kissing her back. 

Wrapping her arms around her waist, she dragged Harley the few centimeters of distance between them and _kissed her back._

God, she didn’t even know she’d been waiting for this. 

She really wanted to start waxing poetic about the kiss, but her brain was wiped clean. All that was running through her mind was— _soft lips, soft skin, sweet smell, firm body, Harley, HarleyHarleyHarley._ Fuck she was so gone for this girl. 

Pulling back, Harley was breathing heavily. “I can’t believe you love me.” she licked her lips. “You. You love _me_. Insane.”

Insulted on behalf of Harley, Dinah frowned. “What’s wrong with you? Of course I love you. You know you’re easy to love, right? Fuck you for thinking you’re not.”

Amused, Harley leaned in for a quick kiss. “You’re so fucking cute.”

“And we need to work on your self-esteem issues.” She was still pouting frowning. 

Moving her hands from Dinah’s cheek to wrap her arms around her neck, Harley softly sighed. “I love you.”

So that’s what Harley was talking about. Yeah, this was overwhelming. “Oh.”

With a wicked glint in her eyes, Harley gave her another peck. “Yeah ‘ _oh_ ’, you little shit! You get it now?”

“Yeah…” she exhaled the word. “I wanna hear you say that for the rest of my life.”

Harley’s breathing stuttered. “I love you.” her words sounded choked. 

Instead of dwelling on how soft they both were, Dinah just pulled her in for another kiss. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> What even was that smh
> 
> I just really want more Harley/Dinah & Harley/Helena fic :( I mean I'm writing A LOT but 90% of them won't get finished or published, and 99% of them are just Not Good, so pls who do I have to pay to write me the fic I need? 
> 
> Harley/Dinah & Harley/Helena fans stay strong asdfghjk
> 
> I made a tumblr if anyone wants to talk headcanons: [fondghost](https://fondghost.tumblr.com) !!!
> 
> CONFESSION: I googled something like "compliments list" and I wrote this based on what I liked lmao I didn't even paraphrase the compliments r i p


End file.
